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SIR ERNEST OPPENHEIMER
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arrival
of 'diggers' from Australia and California, whose ideas were shortly to
have considerable influence on the original methods of exploiting the
diamond fields. The news also led to the formation of two rival
gold-mining companies in London and thus to the beginning of the influx
of British capital in the gold-mining industry. It also inaugurated
that search for 'concessions' which was to have so great an influence
in South African political and economic history. A few years later
Edward Button was to open up a new chapter in the history of the
eastern Transvaal by discovering gold on his farm Eersteling. This was
in August 1871. Other discoveries were to follow. But by this time a
rival economic attraction had appeared to divert public attention
temporarily. The diamond age had begun.
The
news of the existence of diamonds in South Africa was received at first
with great scepticism in the outside world: not for the last time was
an important discovery to be derided by contemporary 'expert' opinion.
But the facts proved too strong. The first diamond was picked up on the
farm De Kalk in the Hopetown district some time in the year 1866; it
was sent by Mr. Lorenzo Boyes, Clerk of the Peace for the Colesberg
district, to Dr. Guybon Atherstone at Grahamstown for examination, with
a covering letter dated 1 March 1867. The sequence of events can be
stated in the latter's own words, in a communication addressed to the Geological Magazine:
I
had never seen a rough diamond before, but upon taking its specific
gravity and hardness, examining it by polarized light, etc., I at once
decided that it was indeed a genuine diamond of considerable value; and
perceiving the great importance of such a discovery to the Colony, I at
once wrote to the Hon. Richard Southey, Colonial Secretary, announcing
the fact, and suggesting that it should be sent to the Paris
Exhibition and afterwards sold for the benefit of the finder. On
receipt of my letter in Cape Town the Colonial Secretary at once
telegraphed to me to send it up to Cape Town and he would send it to
the Crown agents for transmission to the Paris Exhibition. I gave it to
Sir Percy Douglas, our Lieutenant-Governor, who kindly had it conveyed
by the next steamer to Cape Town, where it was examined by the French
Consul, M. Herriette, and other competent judges, who confirmed my
opinion; it was afterwards sent to the Paris Exhibition, and purchased
by the Governor of the Colony, Sir Philip Wodehouse, for £500.1
This
discovery was followed by other 'finds': Mr. W. B. Chalmers, Resident
Magistrate and Civil Commissioner of Hopetown, published 1 Volume 6, no. 59, pp. 208-13, May 1869.
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